A good friend of mine in Florida, Liesel, asked if I would be her stand-in at the book signing and ask Heather to sign a copy of her new book for her. L added, "And if she could sign it something like...'to the best Liesel on earth...' or something like that, I'd be well pleased. ;-)"

Heather seemed to get a kick out of the "best Liesel on Earth" request (she did spell "Liesel" correctly) and remarked that she knows three other Liesel's "so this must mean something." I told Heather the backstory about my proxy signing and she asked in what part of FL Liesel lived adding that she'd be going to FL soon. Watch your back, Liesel.

To be honest, until Liesel told me about Heather I had never heard of the dooce phenomenon. After signing the book Heather asked, "Does she like Chuck?" and I had absolutely no idea who Chuck was! I thought maybe "Chuck" was the dapper gentleman seated next to her (her husband, Jon) but then she handed me a postcard of one of her dogs and said, "Here, I'm going to take a guess that she does!"

*whew*

Anyway, after the signing Liesel asked me, "So... is she nice in person? Witty? A drooling idiot? Did she spell my name correctly? ;-)" Heather was very friendly and gracious - and drool-free - I didn't spend much time with her simply because I didn't know enough about her to ask anything but she did spend plenty of time talk with the patrons ahead of me. And in spite of the large number of fans the actually line moved quickly. Heather's family was there, too...her mom kept walking up and down the line introducing herself and thanking everyone for coming, it was so sweet.

All in all it was a fun night. And now I have a new blog to follow, too.

I visited with Sarah and Jon at the signing as well. I was legitimately struck by how genuinely kind and gracious they were. And not just as celebrities. If I'd met them on the street, I'm sure they would have been just as kind.